The Toronto Star January 2, 1945

Prarie Historical Newspapers




Newspaper Vocabulary
font: style and size of type

headline: extra large font across top of front page, placed above or below the masthead

wire service: a news agency or organization that gathers news and transmits it to individual subscribing newspaper (AP, CP, Reuters)

tabloid: a smaller format 1/2 broadsheet folded, often preferred by publishers of local papers or commuter papers and the sensationalist press (National Enquirer)

broadsheet: full-size newspaper, averaging six columns to a page

column:

  • the vertical divisions of a page
  • opinion or comment expressed by a regular writer
masthead: information about the newspaper, such as the name of the publishing company, names of the officers of the company, location of editorial offices, editorship and distribution facts, all usually found at the top of the editorial page

hard news: up-to-the-minute news and events that are reported immediately

soft news: background information or human interest stories

paparazzi: international press corps who compete for stories, usually of a sensational nature

reporter: a person hired to rush to the scene and phone back information as soon as possible or to key the report into a word processing terminal at the newspaper office

layout: the position of stories, advertisements, photos and graphics on a page

morgue: the newspaper's collection of clippings, photos, reference materials and microfilm

deadline: the assigned time for stories to be submitted in order to make the issue going to press